Education = Privilege

Our Homeschool group visited the Buffalo Naval Park this week. We toured three World War II vessels. The USS Little Rock (Cruiser - pictured), the USS The Sullivans (Destroyer), and the USS Croaker (submarine). It truly was a great field trip.

The most valuable thing I took away from the experience is just how much privilege and education go hand-in-hand. Touring these ships, I could only imagine what the enlisted men went through living and fighting on these ships. As we made our way to the top of the ship we could see the privileges the officers had over the enlisted men. The more rank and education, the better the accommodations and privileges.

As a life application, I don’t care if my children choose to be in the “engine room” powering the ship or in the “pilot house” commanding it, but I do want it to be their choice. They can choose to decline privilege if they like, but it is not going to be because I neglected to give them an education. It really helps affirm the importance of setting high moral, social, and academic standards for our Homeschools.

Homeschooling has changed a lot over the years. Today there are many excellent tools and resources available to help Homeschoolers succeed. If we can be of any assistance in your endeavor to provide an excellent Homeschool experience for your children, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help.

Please feel free to post any questions or comments by clicking on the “comments” link below.

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Please feel free to post any questions or comments by clicking on the “comments” link below.

The success of this family depends on everyone doing their part.

A few years back our family took a Homeschool field trip to the Genesee Country Village, a living museum. The home that stood out most was this little pioneer homestead (pictured). To our amazement, there were 10 children raised in this little one room cabin.

The woman pretending to live in the house was telling us the history of the house and the family that lived there. The husband’s first wife died and the oldest daughter had to step in and become mom to her seven siblings. As we talked about the hardships they had to endure, she commented, “the success of this family, and ultimately their survival depended upon every member of the family working together and doing their share”.

That comment stuck and we immediately implemented it with our family. With eight children, Homeschooling, operating Pennywise Learning, and other outside responsibilities there is no way mom and dad can do it all. We need every member of our household working together to do their share. Our success and survival depends on it.

Besides cleaning up after themselves, everyone in our house has daily/weekly chores. All of our older children can cook meals, clean, do laundry, change diapers, etc, etc. No one person has to shoulder the load by themselves but everyone is expected to do their part.

Occasionally, we have to sit down as a family and remind everyone that we do actually intend to live by this philosophy and that they are expected to participate but for the most part it really does work well. I highly recommend implementing it in your home if you haven’t already.

Please feel free to post any questions or comments by clicking on the “comments” link below.

Special thanks to the folks at HomeschoolTracker.com for providing their HomeschoolTracker Basic Editions FREE-of-Charge to Homeschoolers.

This year our family moved to HomeschoolTracker, Plus Edition to manage our Homeschool activities. If you haven’t already, we highly recommend you check it out.

The FREE Basic Edition features include:

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- User Manual
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To check out HomeschoolTracker, click here!

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Yesterday our family celebrated Rosh Hashanah for the first time and we loved it. Rosh Hoshanah, the Feast of Trumpets is considered the Jewish New Year. For our family it also signified a time of remembrance of God’s blessings in our lives. I truly wish I had the opportunity that my children are having to celebrate and understand the significance the Jewish holidays.

As we prepare for Yom Kippur, I am truly amazed at how the Biblical Holidays are so interwoven and interconnected with our spiritual heritage. This season is a time of reflection, contemplation, and putting things in order and getting right our relationship with God. We see celebrating the Biblical Holidays as a great way to pass our faith to our children and teach them about the nature of God and our responsibility as His children.

A couple of months ago we featured A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays. This 585 page book is a great resources for understanding the Biblical Holidays from a Christian perspective. It even included a special Homeschool curriculum unit study. If you are interested in learning more about Biblical Holidays, click here!

You Teach What You Tolerate

I love this simple statement because it is so true, especially when it comes to our children and Homeschooling. 

For example, if my wife and I tolerate having our school room in a perpetual state of trashiness, then I have taught my children that it is okay have a trashed school room. I can pretty much count on the fact that my kids will leave it trashed. Whereas if I do not tolerate it and I require of them what I can tolerate (a clean school room), then I am teaching them to keep the school room clean.

This philosophy applies to so many areas of our lives.  Chances are, if someone around us is doing something that we don’t like, we have taught them that it is okay to do it because we continue to tolerate it.

Everything I experience today is the result of something I thought, said, or did yesterday. If I don’t like what I am experiencing today, then I need to change today, the things I thought, said, or did yesterday so tomorrow will be better.

While I suppose there are exceptions to this rule, I use it a lot, especially when it comes to Homeschooling my children. If they are falling behind academically, missing the mark spiritually, lacking manners or etiquette, then I am responsible to determine what I have done to contribute and what I can do to ensure the results I experience tomorrow are better than what I got today.

Likewise, when I see them maturing into the awesome individuals that God created them to be, then I can be assured that as their father, what I did yesterday is what I should be doing today, so I will get similar results tomorrow.

As we begin a new school year, I am reminded to hold myself accountable to the goals that I have for my family. If I don’t like the results I am getting, then I must accept responsibility, determine what it is that I am saying, doing, or thinking that is producing the undesirable outcome, and make the necessary changes.

May God grant us the wisdom to see the right, the will to choose it and the strength to make it endure.

Over the last couple of years we have had several requests for assistance in Homeschooling special needs children. While we consider ourselves to be Homeschool Experts by most regards, special needs Homeschooling is a specialty field in and of itself.

A couple of years ago, we adopted a handsome little 6 month old from Dominica in the Caribbean. Since that time he has been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Thus we are beginning on a new journey in Homeschooling in our family in working with this little guy.

To field some questions, we are blessed to have Dawn work with us in Customer Service who has experience in special needs Homeschooling. She introduced us to NATTHAN.com, the National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network which we have referred a number of people to.

Another great site I came across recently is ADDitudemag.com, which addresses ADHD and learning needs children. The symptoms of many diagnosis are similar and you may find some helpful information.

I was at the Airport in Nashville, TN a couple of weeks ago and felt a nudge from the Lord to speak with a women sitting there waiting for her flight to leave. Turns out she is raising an FAS son and she had so much good advice that I needed to hear in raising our son. She was a God send and her experience and encouragement was much needed.

If you have experience with Homeschooling special needs and learning disabled children and have experience to share or a word of encouragement to give, we really want to hear from you.

May the Lord grant us all special wisdom to assist us in producing glorious fruit for His glory.

Thanks to all who took the time to respond to our email request to post product reviews on the site. Purchasing curriculum can be a overwhelming experience.  Your ratings and comments will be most helpful to others who are considering using the items you reviewed.